Celtic were outplayed and outclassed on Thursday night.
It was there for all to see.
When the disco lights had faded and the whistle sounded I was looking for us to take the game by the scruff of the neck like we had against Leipzig four weeks previous. Alas clearly being caught up the in predicament I described in the preview piece of not knowing whether to stick or twist we decided to try and do the former and as a result, we sat deep and were pinned back for most of the first half.
Tom Rogic was reduced to standing in front of our back four trying to defend and looked completely ill at ease in a position alien to him whilst Forrest and Sinclair were unable to venture into the opposition half and were asked to help out the full backs and try and stop their relentless rampages down the wings. Up front, Edouard ploughed a lonely furrow and was unable to hold the ball up at all on the rare occasion it was launched forward to him.
Craig Gordon kept us in the game with three magnificent saves and the bar also came to our rescue with virtually nothing happening down the other end in response.
In the second half, the introduction of Brown helped and we actually decided to move further up the pitch but alas our central defence were caught out with a goal almost identical to the one we conceded against Leipzig as Dabour, who had only netted once in his previous eight, showed you can never keep a good man down and nipped in to head home. Ten mins later Gordon had his moment of madness as Gulbrandsen had apparently blended into the crowd and was able to ghost in and kick the ball from his possession and into the net from a simple throw out. Then Ajer missed a certainty from about six inches and it just looked like it was one of those nights. Glorious failure awaited with Celtic certain to be eliminated on the same points as Leipzig but going out on the head to head which was a measly 3-2 in the German’s favour. But enter Rosenborg’s heroic Tore Reginiussen as he headed home spectacularly in the 86th minute in Germany to secure the Norwegians a solitary point and our place in the last 32. Oh, and Ntcham had a great free-kick saved late on and then scored the rebound from a penalty we got deep into injury time after Benkovic was needlessly fouled in the box.
All’s well that ends well and the facts are Celtic amassed more points than Leipzig over six games so deserve to go through though predictably certain sections of the press portrayed our progression as luck whilst Ranger’s exit in Vienna was painted as a gallant failure.
So onto the Last 32. There we can potentially face 15 of the 16 seeded teams all of whom are either Europa League group winners or the four highest seeded third-placed teams from the Champions League group stages.
Here’s the complete list:
Arsenal, Chelsea, Napoli, Inter Milan, Benfica, Dynamo Kiev, Real Betis, Genk, Villareal, Bayer Leverkusen, Zenit St Petersburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Eintracht Frankfurt, Sevilla or Valencia.
Salzburg is not a possibility because we faced them in the groups.
The glamour ties that jump out are the first two against our esteemed English opponents. What also jumps out though is the potential for right hammerings as both of those sides are doing well this season as well as being on financially a different planet from us.
I wouldn’t care for Zenit again and the Italian and Spanish sides also look pretty tasty this season though Villareal just eeked out of their group, are struggling domestically and failed to beat Rangers home or away. So they would be an exception.
The German clubs would be very difficult but we’ve already beaten one of the best from the Bundesliga this season so no great fear there and the rest are also ties that would be seen as potentially winnable with Genk, in particular, sticking out like a sore thumb though they are actually flying in their domestic league.
Benfica are actually stumbling a bit this season both at home and abroad so maybe an intriguing draw that plus we have an excellent home record against them though admittedly an awful away record against them too.
No matter who it is we need to up our game and we also need reinforcements. Christie is the latest player to be crocked – typical considering the incredible vein of form he was in – and Leigh will be out for some time recovering from his issues. Some rumours also have Benkovic going back down south as early as next month which would be a massive blow.
Needless to say, January will be an interesting month as we gear up for the knockout stages of Europe.
It’s a difficult window but lessons must be learned from our experiences in the last one and if we have ant real ambitions in Europe we need to show it.
....Always A Tim! 